Inkjet printers are used for a variety of purposes, from desktop to production printing. For example, entities with substantial printing demands typically use an inkjet production printer. An inkjet production printer is a high-speed printer used for volume printing (e.g., one hundred pages per minute or more), and may include continuous-forms printers that print on a web of print media stored on a large roll.
While a continuous-forms inkjet printer operates, the web is quickly passed underneath the nozzles of printheads of the printer, which discharge ink onto the web at intervals to form pixels. Although most of the ink dispensed by the printheads is transferred to the web, some amount of ink remains on the nozzles of the printheads, and this amount may vary depending on the viscosity of the ink used. For example, pigment inks are particularly tacky in comparison to dye inks.
In order to clean the printhead nozzles and ensure that congealed ink does not interfere with the printing process, many inkjet printers include wipers that travel across the printheads and scrape off residual ink before the ink can congeal. However, the wipers themselves accumulate residual ink as they clean the printheads. Congealed ink on a wiper reduces the overall efficacy of that wiper, and can even damage or clog the printheads.